Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
